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Eleftherias Square
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Other Projects by draftworks*architects
Eleftherias Square
‘Eleftherias Square’: meeting stories
The most important feature that we acknowledge at the site of Eleftherias Square, and what renders it different than other parts of the city, is its ‘in-between’ character. Standing between areas of the city that are quite distinct to each other the square can potentially attract different categories of users an uses: The dodgy ‘Ladadika’, the fancy commercial centre, the shops, the nostalgic sea and the lively port. With our proposal we want to enhance this ‘in-between’ identity of the space and use it as an occasion to incorporate many different ‘frames of reference’ into the single area of the square. These frames of reference are materialised by the use of what we call ‘micro-realms’ or ‘islands’. These islands neighbor with the various surrounding areas of the city and draw their identity from these areas:
1. A square for the children: The island ‘A’ is placed at the northern and western part of the square. It includes a small ‘garden’ of Jacaranda trees placed in small groups, and play-objects for small children, like a sandpit and a steel dome. It is defined by a small differentiation of level that forms an edge. Older children can play at this edge with their skateboards and bicycles. The edge can also serve as resting place for visitors of any age.
2. A square for entertainment and commerce: three smaller ‘islands’ with places to sit and small shelters form the island ‘B’. The complex of islands create a cluster of welcoming spaces where once stood the original square Eleftherias, before it expanded to its present size.
3. A square of the Thermaikos bay: The island ‘C’ with a long bench at its edge, forms a public ‘belvedere’ at the southern end of the square that offers a privileged view to the sea and the port.
4. The city accessing the sea: The ‘Z’ promenade forms a crossing of the square longwise and in this way allows to the commercial part of the city an access to the sea. The promenade also serves as a linear memorial to the event of July 11, 1942, when all the male Jews of the city between 18 and 45 years old were ordered to present at the square by the Nazi conquerors of the city and then sent to concentration camps. On the border of the promenade all the names of the almost 50,000 members of the Jewish community that were lost during the War.
5. The ground of the city: The ground is for our proposal one of the most important design features. It provides the square with the quality of a landscape with small differentiation of levels and ‘topographic’ edges and a single smart material (concrete mosaic) that connects all the different islands of the square together into a coherent whole, while its component material provide diversity in a microscale.
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PROJECT: Competition for the design of Eleftherias square, Thessaloniki, GR
Αρχιτεκτονικός Διαγωνισμός για την Ανάπλαση της Πλατείας Ελευθερίας, Θεσσαλονίκη
CLIENT: Municipality of Thessaloniki
PLACE/TIME: Thessaloniki, GR, 2013
BUDGET: 1.865.000 E
DESIGN TEAM: Christiana Ioannou, Dafne Kokkini, Christos Papastergiou, Harry Varnavas
CONSULTANTS: Manos Tsolakis (Landscape Architect), Yannakis Mitisides (Mechanical Eng.), Michalis Nikolaides (Electrical Eng.), Christos Baltas (Structural Eng.)
The most important feature that we acknowledge at the site of Eleftherias Square, and what renders it different than other parts of the city, is its ‘in-between’ character. Standing between areas of the city that are quite distinct to each other the square can potentially attract different categories of users an uses: The dodgy ‘Ladadika’, the fancy commercial centre, the shops, the nostalgic sea and the lively port. With our proposal we want to enhance this ‘in-between’ identity of the space and use it as an occasion to incorporate many different ‘frames of reference’ into the single area of the square. These frames of reference are materialised by the use of what we call ‘micro-realms’ or ‘islands’. These islands neighbor with the various surrounding areas of the city and draw their identity from these areas:
1. A square for the children: The island ‘A’ is placed at the northern and western part of the square. It includes a small ‘garden’ of Jacaranda trees placed in small groups, and play-objects for small children, like a sandpit and a steel dome. It is defined by a small differentiation of level that forms an edge. Older children can play at this edge with their skateboards and bicycles. The edge can also serve as resting place for visitors of any age.
2. A square for entertainment and commerce: three smaller ‘islands’ with places to sit and small shelters form the island ‘B’. The complex of islands create a cluster of welcoming spaces where once stood the original square Eleftherias, before it expanded to its present size.
3. A square of the Thermaikos bay: The island ‘C’ with a long bench at its edge, forms a public ‘belvedere’ at the southern end of the square that offers a privileged view to the sea and the port.
4. The city accessing the sea: The ‘Z’ promenade forms a crossing of the square longwise and in this way allows to the commercial part of the city an access to the sea. The promenade also serves as a linear memorial to the event of July 11, 1942, when all the male Jews of the city between 18 and 45 years old were ordered to present at the square by the Nazi conquerors of the city and then sent to concentration camps. On the border of the promenade all the names of the almost 50,000 members of the Jewish community that were lost during the War.
5. The ground of the city: The ground is for our proposal one of the most important design features. It provides the square with the quality of a landscape with small differentiation of levels and ‘topographic’ edges and a single smart material (concrete mosaic) that connects all the different islands of the square together into a coherent whole, while its component material provide diversity in a microscale.
*
PROJECT: Competition for the design of Eleftherias square, Thessaloniki, GR
Αρχιτεκτονικός Διαγωνισμός για την Ανάπλαση της Πλατείας Ελευθερίας, Θεσσαλονίκη
CLIENT: Municipality of Thessaloniki
PLACE/TIME: Thessaloniki, GR, 2013
BUDGET: 1.865.000 E
DESIGN TEAM: Christiana Ioannou, Dafne Kokkini, Christos Papastergiou, Harry Varnavas
CONSULTANTS: Manos Tsolakis (Landscape Architect), Yannakis Mitisides (Mechanical Eng.), Michalis Nikolaides (Electrical Eng.), Christos Baltas (Structural Eng.)
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